The very scary part of this experience was that I could not close out open positions starting during regular market hours when there was no halt on the stocks I held. There is no way I can continue using this system. I am looking to move my acount to NobleTrading or SpeedTrader.
The after-hours restrictions make any trading toward the end of the regular session extra-risky. I wanted to go long GCA when it broke out yesterday afternoon shortly before close, but decided to skip it because if anything went wrong during the 15 minutes after close, that would have been just too darned bad -- it's scary to be in a position when others can trade it, but you can't.
Well lets see what schwab has said and still says. # Significantly lower data access fees and fee waive outs yeah...... soooooo # Continued access to your current Austin-based service team, plus you may have access to Schwab specialty service teams and the Schwab National Service Team is available 24/7 Yeah, you just have to wait 20 minutes to get them and then there isn't much they can do. # Nearly identical trading platforms I love this one. nearly=not quite=somewhat=essentially anybody getting that.....anybody.
I wish somebody from Schwab would come to my house (or to some of the other posters here) and spend a couple of days watching us arm wrestle SS Pro. A little hands-on experience would quickly clarify the worst of the problems (and they are very serious for high-volume traders). Even with my daily trading scaled back 70% (and Schwab's commissions similarly reduced), it's a battle to get anything accomplished.
I've thrown Fidelity into the mix. I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. RML pricing much better than TerraNova. I'm also looking at Lightspeed, Cobra, Noble, Master and Speed Trader. Man this is a headache!
The last rep I talked to was VERY aware of the problems and mounting frustration. The former Cyber reps know what the score is, but it seems no one is listening to them. I was told that Schwab didn't want to offer the full CT package because they have ten times as many customers as Cyber and they don't hve server capacity to handle it. That doesn't make a lot of sense, since the Lev II boxes eat up the most bandwidth, and they let us have the same number as before. Plus, they were able to handle it at Cyber. If I were a Schwab stockholder, i think I would be asking some very pointed questions. Like why they destroyed a valuable asset and drove off a high percentage of their best customers. The average Schwab customer trades a handful of times a year. You only have to do 10 trades a quarter to get the SS "Pro" platform. The average CT customer does more volume by 10 AM than a Schwab customer does in a year.
I can hear it now, this the kind of thing schwab will look at in a year or two and say something at the board meeting like, "boy, we really messed up that one, why didn't you guys say something while we still had a chance to fix it"
They have a chance to fix it now, but their window is short. I think they ought to choose 5 - 10 of the worst problems and fix them in the next 2 or 3 weeks to prove to the daytraders who haven't yet completely jumped ship that Schwab is serious about setting things right. Otherwise, they'll be essentially out of the active-trader business, and they will have squandered much of their CyberTrader investment. When you think about it, this is a great time to be an up and coming daytrading outfit. Between Schwab's mugging of CyberTrader and the E*TRADE debacle ....
I don't know why it is not obvious to all of you. Schwab is not interested in the daytrading business and couldn't care less if every single CT customer left them. They have bigger fish to fry - MarketMaking being one of them.
You may be right, but if they don't want daytrading business, why'd they spend the money on CT in the first place? It's not like they need the CT Pro/SS Pro software as a platform for their standard clients. Daytrading is never going to be their bread and butter, but we active traders, even though paying lower commissions, are steady, high-volume business that requires relatively little hand holding (at least when things are working properly -- when they get messed up, as they did on 12/10, we're probably an unbelievable pain in the backside). I think they truly just didn't have a clue about what distinguishes a high-volume trader from Mr. and Mrs. Mainstreet. I completely understand their reasons for consolidating operations. I just don't understand why they did such a seemingly casual job of it.